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The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, on Thursday, that it had summoned its ambassador to Ouagadougou for “consultations,” the day after the decision to withdraw the French army from Burkina Faso within “a month,” noting that this step aims to discuss the situation and the horizon of joint cooperation between the two countries, and it also comes after He asked the ruling Burkinabe junta to replace Ambassador Luc Alade.
On Thursday, the French Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador to France Burkina Faso “To hold consultations,” the day after Paris announced the withdrawal of its forces from this African country within “a month.”
In this context, the ministry said: “In the context of the recent developments in Burkina Faso, we have decided to recall our ambassador to Paris for consultations on the situation and the horizon of our bilateral cooperation.”
In the language of diplomacy, summoning the ambassador for “consultations” indicates dissatisfaction with the country or even a diplomatic crisis with it.
However, Lok Alad’s recall comes after a request from the ruling military junta in Ouagadougou to replace the ambassador. In December, the council requested that Allad be replaced, accusing him of speaking out about the deteriorating security situation in the country, which is experiencing jihadist violence.
But Lok Alad remained in the position he has held since the summer of 2019, and the visit of the Minister of State at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chrisola Zakharopoulou, to Burkina Faso on January 10 opened a window for the possibility of a truce between the two countries.
Instead of appeasement, a turning point occurred a few days ago, when the government of Burkina Faso decided to annul the 2018 agreement related to regulating the presence of French forces on its territory.
On Tuesday, the French Foreign Ministry received an “official” notification of the termination of the agreement, according to what it announced on Wednesday. “According to the terms of the agreement, termination takes effect one month after receiving the written notification,” the French news agency quoted the ministry as saying, adding, “We will respect the terms of the agreement by implementing this request.”
Faced with deteriorating relations between France and Burkina Faso and growing anti-French sentiment across the country, French officials have stressed in recent months that the special forces will only stay at the request of the Ouagadougou authorities.
“France does not impose anything, it is open to building the future together,” said the Minister of State, after a meeting with Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who took power after a coup at the end of September. However, shortly after this visit, Ouagadougou announced that it would firmly assert the country’s sovereignty and intend to “diversify its partners” in the fight against jihadists, a mission in which France has supported it for years.
Burkina Faso currently hosts a battalion of about 400 members of the French Special Forces, which bears the name “Force Saber”. An informed source stated that the military will leave the country “by the end of February,” and that all equipment will be completed by “the end of April.”
According to identical sources, the preferred option would be to redeploy these soldiers in neighboring Niger, which currently hosts about two thousand French soldiers. Ouagadougou wants the French military to leave without severing diplomatic relations with Paris. However, France is now looking suspiciously at the new Burkinabé authorities, who are beginning to converge with Russia.
Burkina Faso’s prime minister made an unannounced visit to Moscow in December, before announcing two weeks ago that partnership with Russia was a “logical choice”. A diplomatic source recently explained that Chrysola Zakharopoulou, during her visit to Ouagadougou, “was very clear about the implications of the choice that the authorities would take,” adding that “every choice has consequences.”
The questions currently being raised relate to the future of French development aid, which could be suspended, as happened with Mali, if Burkina Faso sought the help of the Russian private military group, Wagner. France has pumped about one billion euros into Burkina Faso between 2011 and 2021 through its development agency.
France 24/AFP